Moonstone and Starlight
by KhanFan
Summary: Two strangers meet by chance in the middle of nowhere with the help of the Hunters of Artemis, while figuring out who they are and being led to Camp Half Blood, where they come across the hugest challenge of their life. OCxNico and OCxEthan ***ON HIATUS***
1. Chapter 1

**AN: So, this is the happy story I told you all I would write. Except, I didn't write it alone, but with the help of my friend who is awesome! So, I hope you guys like it!**

**Disclaimer: Any recognizable characters are not owned by me, but by their respective owners. I do, however, own any and all original characters and plots.**

Travis said that my past was similar to that of any other Demigod. I lived with my dad, and my mom had "died." For most others, it was the same way. Except, he had said, until we went hiking in South Dakota, The Badlands to be exact. You see, my father is a weatherman, and he never gets any forecast wrong. So imagine our surprise when a storm blew in through the spires. I remember that day all too clearly.

"Grace, they have found you! Head for the trees, they won't be able to find you as quickly," my dad had said to me that day. And I, being myself, looked up fearfully at the clouds, as they condensed and rain poured down on me. It stung my skin, the acid rain.

"Dad, why?" I asked simply, as I hesitantly took a few steps towards the trees. "Who is coming for me?"

"I don't have time to explain, Grace. I love you very much." He kissed my forehead. Lightning cracked down from the sky, creating shadows that looked slightly like angels. "Go Grace, go!" he shouted, as thunder sounded above us and lightning struck the ground few yards away from us.

I took off running towards the trees, the wind almost lifting me off of my feet, and dust, leaves, and other debris flying past me. As I reached the safety of the trees, I fingered my azurite ring. It was a gift from my mother; a stiff bracelet plated in silver, and my most prized possession. I only had one other object from my mother, a circlet like bracelet that adorned my right wrist with a rainbow moonstone on it.

The wind blew past me in a big gust. And that was when I decided I'd run further into the trees. I ran for a long time. Travis said most demigods would have tried to fight. It was another reason that I was odd, because I didn't even think about trying to. I ran until I reached another group of cliffs. I scaled them quickly, trying not to fall—just trying to get away. At reaching the bottom, I noticed the sky was clear again.

I started to walk, just to get anywhere, anywhere other than where I was now. I started crying as night set in and took refuge under a cliff. I stayed awake the next few days, just trying to make sense of where I went. By the third day, I had given up, curled up into a ball underneath my cliff and fell into a dehydration induced stupor. Later, I woke to find myself being poked by a stick.

"Do you think she's alive?" a voice said, and a hand grabbed my arm. I felt two cold fingers press against my wrist.

"Yes, she is. Tell Aria to set up the tents, I'll wake her up. Go on." I heard footsteps leading away. And then I was poked by the stick again. "Hey, wake up. It's okay, we won't hurt you." I blinked my eyes open. I saw a girl with pitch black hair and pale skin. She had a nose piercing and multiple ear piercings.

"Who are you?" I asked, sitting up and rubbing my eyes. My voice sounded like my throat had been coated with sandpaper. She offered me some water, and I eyed it suspiciously. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that taking water from strange girls in the middle of a nowhere was a bad idea. I took the bottle but decided I'd drink it after she told me who she was.

"I'm Thalia, Daughter of Zeus, Hunter of Artemis."

"Did she say _Daughter of Zeus_ and _Hunter of Artemis? _It's official. I'm hallucinating," were the first thoughts to enter my head.

"Did you just say what I thought you just said?" I blinked, my eyes flickering to the aluminum water bottle in my hands. I unscrewed the cap and swallowed water. It didn't taste like water, but like my dad's chicken noodle soup, hot while running down my throat. Yes, I am definitely hallucinating. If I died, oh well; I had accepted the fact that I would eventually.

"Yes, you know the Greek gods and goddesses?" I nodded. "They are real, and I can show you the proof."

"Then where is it?" I challenged.

"Give me the water bottle and I'll show you." I reluctantly gave her the water bottle—I wanted to treasure it forever, it tasted so good. She tipped it downwards, and a golden liquid drained out. Where it hit the ground, little flowers grew out of the dust. I'm sure there was some other, more logical explanation for this. "Demeter gave us this, since you were in her territory," she shrugged.

"Wait, you're not kidding, are you?" I said, my eyes widening.

"Nope, now come with me," she said, holding her hand out to help me up. I took it and then I felt my legs crunch as I stood up for the first time in who knows how long. She led me to a group of 20 or so girls that were hustling around a few tents. I smelled food. Good food. It took me a moment to realize that Thalia was talking to me again.

"You can stay with us until we get to the camp in a few days. We have another girl here who didn't join us," she said again, noticing that I hadn't been listening to her.

"Join you?" I asked, looking at her as she led me into one of the tents. There was a fire in the center of their campsite, but instead of casting an orange glow like a normal campfire, it casted a silver one.

"Yes, as I said before, we are the Hunters of Artemis. We are immortal unless we fall in combat. But there is one condition. You have to swear yourself away from men." She looked at me from across the campfire, her bright blue eyes reflecting the flames.

"Oh, then I thank you for your generosity in saving me, and for this food. But I have to decline," I said politely as she handed me a plate of what looked like rice with sauce over it. I took a fork that was in it and ate it quietly. No guys? I couldn't do that for the world.

"That's okay," Thalia sighed, looking away. "We don't get many recruits recently," she said. I didn't doubt it, but I did know a few girls at my school that would be more than happy to join them.

"But if I don't stay with you, where will I stay?" I asked, taking another bite of my food. It was really good, but I tried to pace myself to make sure I didn't throw up.

"I'd better start at the beginning, it's a long story," she said, and launched into a story about how the Greek gods came down to Earth to hook up with mortals, resulting in Half Bloods, like us. And Chiron was a centaur, who had been given the duty to train these Heroes resided at a place called Camp Half Blood, where the Heroes trained all day. That is where they would be taking me and a girl named Laila the next day. How they planned to get across the country in one day was beyond me. After I finished my food, she led me to the tent where the other girl destined for Camp Half-Blood was staying.

"Thank you for the food," I said when she was outside. The night sky was filled with stars. I watched Thalia walk away, petting the wolf that came up beside her. What a day this had been. I walked inside the tent, my hand clamped on my moonstone bracelet.

"Hey! You must be the new girl! I'm Laila!" My eyes fell on the chirpy girl that had approached me. She was petite, with smooth caramel brown skin, and wildly curly, messy black hair that covered half of her face. Everything about her made her look like she was a normal girl of Indian descent-everything except for her vivid green eyes.

"Hi. You're rather cheery," I remarked as I sat down on the ground next to her. We had our own fire in here but it was considerably smaller than the fire outside.

"Well, I'm excited to finally get where I am supposed to be. Happy to have left my horrid aunt's house, and my life is finally starting to look bright for a moment." She smiled at me, laughing quietly. I regarded her gingerly, getting into the sleeping bag she wasn't sitting on and fell asleep quietly. I dreamt that night about my father in the underworld, crossing the Styx on Charon's ferry.

**AN: So, how did you like it? Please leave a review telling me what you thought of it, even if you thought that it was totally lame and deserved to be taken off the internet and burned in a bonfire.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: So, here's the second chapter of Moonstone and Starlight. I hope you like it!**

**Disclaimer: ****Any recognizable characters are not owned by their respective owners. I do, however, own any and all original characters and plots.**

I woke with a start; someone in the camp had sounded a horn to wake us up. I had slept in the same clothes as I always had for the past few nights.

"Morning," Laila said. She was a morning person? I hoped not, but when I glanced over at her, the frown on her face and the red in her eyes was sure sign that the assumption I had just made was completely wrong.

"Good morning. Are you ready to get to our destination?" I asked, folding up my sleeping bag. She mirrored my actions as she answered my question.

"Yes, ready to meet everyone at Camp Half-Blood. Thalia says there are really nice people there... As long as you avoid the Ares Cabin, that is." I had known enough about Greek mythology to laugh at that statement. Ares was the god of war, and I was kind of apprehensive about meeting his kids.

"Of course, and Hades kids I would bet," I laughed quietly. I thought I smelled food somewhere in the camp and went to investigate when suddenly the entrance to our tent whipped open. We both recoiled from the light, bumping into each other and laughing as we did.

"Don't hurt each other!" the voice of Thalia said as she walked into our tent.

"No promises," I laughed. Laila looked at Thalia like she wanted to chop her into tiny pieces and feed her to the wolf for opening the tent flap and letting the light in.

"So, what's the plan?" I twirled my azurite ring around my finger, and looked to Thalia, who was still dressed like it was Halloween.

"Well, the girls have already packed almost everything up, we'll just eat and then head out, I hope neither of you have an aversion to heights." She paused for a second, took a deep breath and continued her next sentence in that one breath. "We'll take our chariot and drive exactly south-southeast of here at 174.2 miles per hour and, taking into the account the speed and direction of the wind, the jet streams, and our lunch break, we'll get to Camp Half Blood at exactly 9:23 pm." She took in our stunned faces. "What? I _am_ a daughter of Zeus."

"And we leave in how long?"

"In about half an hour, so hurry up and make sure you've gotten everything you need," she replied.

"Okay, we'll be along in a sec." When she left I turned to Laila. "Well, I think I have everything, you?"

"Absolutely positive, let's go." And we walked out into the sunlight. A whole bunch of girls were getting things ready; a lot of them were putting things into a whole bunch of chariots, and a few were eating granola bars and fooling around. One of them tossed each of us a Nature Valley bar, smiling.

"You guys must be the ones we're taking to Camp. I'm Aria, Daughter of Apollo, nice to meet you." The girl had amber colored hair and brown eyes.

"Nice to meet you too! Daughter of Apollo; that must mean you're good at archery, right?" Laila said as I took a bite of the bar. "I've always wanted to try!"

"It's pretty hard to get the hang of it. It took _me _a while to get good at it, and I'm a daughter of Apollo!"

"But, I can try, right?" Laila pouted.

"Sure, go ahead." Aria motioned towards the set of quills, the bow, and the target that had been set up for the others to practice on.

Laila walked towards the practice area, and confidently picked up the bow and an arrow. She brought them up, and then paused. "Can we have a contest?" she exclaimed. "I love contests!" Aria chuckled, but agreed. A huge smile lit up Laila's face-not one of those fake smiles, but a real, huge smile that looked too big for her face. Laila lifted her bow again, but hesitated. "You go first Aria. I'm kinda nervous."

"Sure, sure. Watch the master at work." Aria lifted her bow and set the arrow as Laila muttered something under her breath. After a moment of gauging the wind and the distance to the target, Aria shot the arrow. I was amazed, and a smirk appeared on Aria's face. The arrow was on the very edge of the innermost circle. "Your turn, Laila."

"Thank you," Laila said politely, and tuned to set the arrow herself. After a moment, the arrow shot out and hit the target dead center. A smile spread on Laila's face, one bigger than her last smile, if that was possible. Then, she did something none of us were expecting. She started dancing around like a maniac and singing, "Koi hero yahaan, koi zero yahaan, koi star hai, koi bekaar hai. Main kaun hoon? Tumse main kya kahoon? Hai such to ye doston, I'm the best, I'm the best, I'm the best! Oh, I'm the best, I'm the best, I'm the best!" Aria, on the other hand, looked like she was ready to murder someone.

"Cheater!" she yelled.

"Hey, don't call me a cheater!"

"That's what you are. Cheater, cheater, cheater!"

"Aria, don't call me a cheater."

"Laila is a cheater, she is a cheater, she is a cheater," Aria sang.

"I am not a cheater!"

"Cheater!"

Suddenly, Laila began to laugh like a maniac. Aria and I looked at her like she belonged in an institution with straitjackets and padded walls. I honestly hoped that something hadn't snapped inside her head to make her do this.

"Oh my god, this is just like that scene in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai where Rahul pushes Anjali when they're playing basketball, and then Anjali's like, 'Agar khelna nahi aata to cheating to mat karo!' Oh, that's one of my favorite movies!" she exclaimed while jumping up and down excitedly.

I shook my head in amusement as I listened to her talk about this movie that apparently was about two friends who fell in love, but the guy ended up with this girl that he thought he loved, but realized that he didn't when the aforementioned best friend was leaving to let them be together. It was overall a kind of confusing movie, but sounded interesting.

"Okay guys, it's time to go!" Thalia yelled. Aria sent one last glare towards Laila and stomped off in the opposite direction. We both strolled over to Thalia. "You'll be flying with me, so get in." We got into the chariot, and when she flicked the reins the horses took off.

Now call me crazy, but I didn't really want to fall out the back end of the chariot, so I stayed up front, holding onto the front of the chariot for most of the first hour, then Thalia turned to me saying, "You know you can't fall out, right?" She walked over to the back of the chariot and kicked her foot out; it bounced right back in and created a shock wave because of sort of magic force field.

"I totally knew that, I was just testing you! To see if you were really there for me. Um... yeah, that's what I was doing." And then I sat next to Laila, who was going on and on about some Bollywood movie and a couple "extremely hot actors" for the rest of the ride.

**A/N: So, I hope that fulfilled your expectations! And thank you to the one person who reviewed the last chapter. You have no idea how excited that made me and my friend. So, if you like it, please review, and if you don't please review and tell us what we should try to fix. **

**P.S. My friend and I have created a page on Facebook that kind of tells you about our progress in writing. If you want to join, it's called Percy Jackson's Girls.**

**P.P.S. If you want to hear the song that Laila was singing when she won, look up 'I Am the Best Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani' on YouTube.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Sorry this took so long to put up, but my schedule never fit with my friend's, so we almost never had time to write. Hopefully that will change with the summer coming up and we'll be able to get chapters out more quickly.**

**Disclaimer: ****Any recognizable characters and plots are owned by their respective owners. I own any and all original characters and plots.**

During our lunch break, I swore I had never seen anyone eat a salad faster than Laila. She was offered a BLT but had to politely decline, due to the fact that she was a vegetarian. But when she got that salad, she ate faster than anyone else in our group.

"I think you ate faster than the wolves," I pointed out as she pushed aside the empty salad bowl that she had licked clean-literally.

"It's not my fault the wolves are slow eaters," she huffed.

"Laila, stop talking to Grace, we need to hurry, and she's only taken like one-point-five bites out of her sandwich." I smirked at Laila and took a bite out of my sandwich. We had made a couple of friends on the way here, but most of them kept to themselves as we ate our food. I looked over at Laila, who and folded her hands in front of her chest and leaned irritated against a tree. Without the distraction of talking, we were on the road again in no time.

"Are we there yet?" I whined petulantly while leaning against Laila, who had fallen asleep. The lunch break we had taken was more like a dinner break, and above us the sky had turned purple with twilight and the stars had started to poke holes of light in the otherwise dark sky.

"Soon, and if you ask that one more time, I promise I will turn this chariot around. Do you understand?" I frowned and closed my eyes as I wondered what this camp would look like. Thalia had tried to describe it, but what she had said didn't make very much sense. Apparently, there was this tree that she used to be, whatever that means. And behind that, there was a camp with twelve houses, though more were in construction. I tried to picture it in my mind, but I couldn't figure anything out about that place, which was weird, since I could usually picture stuff really well, being dyslexic and all.

I guessed that we had been a lot closer than I had expected, because, I felt sick to my stomach and wanted to throw up all the food that I had eaten just a few hours ago, which was a sure sign that we were landing. I often got sick during landings.

We landed somewhere with a small bump, resulting in me flying up just enough to make me scream.

"We're safe now Grace. Welcome to your new home!" Thalia said.

My scream, surprisingly, had not woken Laila. But she stirred in her sleep as I flicked her right in the middle of the forehead to try to wake her up.

"Five more minutes, bua," she mumbled. I noticed then that she had a slight British accent. It was a really cool accent, because it was part Indian, part English.

"Laila, it's Grace. We're there. I mean here." She bolted up, almost hitting Thalia while doing it.

"Careful, Laila. You don't want to hurt anyone, do you?" Thalia murmured. "Anyways, we're here now! Welcome to your new home!" she said in a cheerier voice.

"Thalia!" a voice rang out accompanied by the sound of horse hooves. I looked up, and there was a Man. Who. Was. Half. Horse.

"Whoa! A real life centaur!" Laila exclaimed, while I inwardly freaked out. His arm reached out to shake mine, and I noticed my arm shake as it reached out to clasp his. Laila, on the other hand, couldn't contain her excitement at meeting this man, I mean centaur, and started asking him a whole bunch of random questions.

"What's it like being a centaur? Do you eat horse food or human food? Wait are you Chiron? Like the trainer of the heroes? Oh my god, I can't believe I'm actually meeting Chiron!" She started fangirling, which was jumping up and down and squealing at a pitch that I'm sure would have any dog running here any moment now. His eyebrows arched as he looked at her jumping up and down like a crazy person.

"So many questions? We'll have time for those in the morning." He regarded her coolly as if he heard these questions on a regular basis, and not just from crazy girls like Laila. "Thalia, do you know who their parents are?"

"Well, my dad's name is George Winters," I supplied helpfully. "My mom died when I was younger."

"And my dad's name is Rahul Kapoor, and my mom died too when I was younger," Laila told Chiron, still looking at him like he was a movie star or something.

Ignoring us completely, Thalia said, "No, they're still undetermined, Chiron." I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about, and I didn't think Laila did either, so I tuned their conversation out as I looked around.

We had landed by a road and in front of us was a hill. On the hill was a large evergreen tree, with a golden piece of what looked like cloth hanging over one of the branches.

"Grace...Grace?" Laila called. I focused back on Thalia and Chiron to see they were walking away towards the tree. We followed them hastily, running up the hill. "Wait!" Laila shouted. They turned around startled, like they had forgotten all about us.

"Come along now, you'll be in the Hermes cabin for the night."

"Hermes, as in the god of messengers, trade, thieves, and travel? This day is just getting better and better!" Laila exclaimed. I looked at her like she was crazy. How was she so accepting of the fact that we were at a camp for kids of the Greek gods? I didn't think I would ever understand it.

As we walked past the pine, we got a full view of the camp. It was a collection of pretty much every type of building imaginable, from a really big farm house on our left right after we passed the pine to a collection of about 20 cabins on our right, some of which were still in construction, but mostly finished. You could see Long Island Sound on the other side of a Greek Columned building, and a fire in the middle of an Amphitheater, where you could hear a lot of voices singing. There were also stables, an armory, and an arena by a large forest.

"You two will be staying in this cabin for the night," Thalia told us when we got to the cabins. She pointed towards a cabin with a winged staff entwined by two snakes hanging above the door. This cabin was easily the most worn of them all, probably because it was the most crowded. It had chipped paint, and didn't feel as 'magical' as the other cabins did.

"Are you sure this is the Hermes cabin?" Laila questioned. "I was expecting something a little more...I don't know...nice? For one he _is _a god, and second, he's the god of doctors. Aren't doctors supposed to earn a lot?"

"It was nice once, but because he is also the god of travelers, anyone who is unclaimed stays here. Which is a not so often occurrence nowadays," Chiron explained patiently.

"I guess that's true too," Laila admitted. I blinked, and then looked up at Chiron.

"Can we go in?" I asked. "I'm kinda exhausted."

"Let me bring Luke out so he can give you an introduction to camp," Thalia said. She went into the cabin and when she came out, she was with a guy. A hot guy.

"Hey, I'm Luke. You must be Grace? And Laila?" I noticed that Laila wasn't really listening. She seemed to be distracted looking somewhere in the dark.

"Yeah, I'm Grace, and she's Laila," I told him.

"Nice to meet you. I'm the counselor of Cabin Eleven, which is where you'll be staying tonight. Most likely, we'll figure out who your parent is tomorrow, and you'll be relocated. Unless you're a child of Hermes or a minor god or goddess that doesn't have a cabin yet, in which case, you'll stay here. Any questions?" We remained silent, and Luke chuckled. "I'll take that as a no. In that case come on in, and make yourselves at home. Light out is in half an hour, so be sure to be ready for bed by then."

"You mean we are sleeping in the same room as a bunch of guys?" I asked.

Luke chuckled. "Well, we don't really have enough cabins to separate the campers by parent _and_gender, so, I guess that's a yes."

"Well, okay then," I replied.

"If you're uncomfortable then..."

"Oh no, we're fine," Laila interrupted.

"Okay. If you need anything, just tell me, and I'll be sure to help out in whatever way that I can," Luke told us.

"Thanks, a lot," I said. Laila and I went into the cabin while Luke stayed outside with Thalia and Chiron to discuss something, probably us. After we claimed a spot, I asked Laila, "What had you so distracted before, when Luke was talking?"

She looked around to see if anyone was eavesdropping, then said, "Okay, there was this guy. And he was like, _SO_hot! He had dark hair, and was wearing black, and had dark eyes. There was something really mysterious about him. OH MY GOD, HE WAS SO HOT!" she whisper-yelled.

"Well, maybe we'll get introduced to him tomorrow. You'd better hope he's not a son of Ares or Hades. That would be a disaster," I answered smiling. Laila was really something else.

"I wouldn't care. Unless he was like... married or something. Then I would just stalk him until he had me arrested." We both laughed.

"Lights out, everyone!" I heard a voice call out. Everyone outside slowly trudged into their respective cabins and turned their lights out.

I didn't know how this would turn out, but I had a feeling that it wouldn't be boring.

**A/N: I hope that wasn't horrible, and that it lived up to your expectations. If you liked it, please review. If you didn't, please still review so that we'll know what to fix next time.**

**P.S. I messed up last time. The page on Facebook isn't called Percy Jackson's Girls, but Grace and Laila's Nook of Awesomeness. My bad! If you want updates on when we're writing and when we're updating, go and like it on Facebook.**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: Sorry for the long delay in getting this chapter out. It's summer and we were both on vacation without internet access at different times. But here it is, finally. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: ****Any recognizable characters are owned by their respective owners. I do, however, own any and all original characters and plots.**

I woke up the next morning to the sound of a horn and a drooling Laila asleep next to me.

"That would be breakfast, time to get up girls," Luke said softly, shaking my shoulder.

"5 more hours, dad," Laila mumbled, covering her head with her pillow.

Luke chuckled. "It's not your dad, Laila. It's Luke."

"Then 5 more hours, Luke!" Laila grumbled. He snickered, and started shaking her.

"Does anyone have a tub of ice water?"

"I'm up, I'm up," Laila grumbled. "Where's the fire?"

"It's breakfast time, Laila," I said.

"Ooh! Breakfast! Why didn't you say so earlier?" Luke and I started laughing as Laila looked at us, puzzled. "Why are we just sitting here when there's breakfast to be eaten?" she remarked grumpily as she got up. Everyone lined up in order of seniority, meaning Laila and I were dead last. We walked out to the pavilion and sat at our extremely crowded table. Laila looked around, then she jumped nearly three feet out of her chair like she had been pricked with a pin.

"Laila, are you okay? Well, I mean as okay as you could possibly be because there are a few loose screws in that noggin of yours."

"Hey!" Laila protested. "I just saw that guy from last night, he's over there." She pointed to across the pavilion and sure enough there was a guy sitting all alone at one of the tables. He had dark brown hair that was almost black and was also dressed in mostly black. He had a sword hanging by his side, suspended there from a chain belt. Laila was somewhat right, he was cute, so I told her so. "He's not cute. He's hot, sexy, manly, but not _cute_," she insisted.

I heard the sound of hooves clopping, recognizing it from horseback riding with my dad, and suddenly, it was silent. I looked around to see the centaur, Chiron raising his glass. "To the gods!"

Everybody raised their glasses. "To the gods!"

Some ladies came over with huge plates of food. I could see my favorites: oatmeal, strawberries, apples, and grapes.

"I don't see any drinks," Laila commented.

"You just speak to the goblets, and they fill it up with whatever you want," a random blond haired kid at our table said. "Of course, it can't have alcohol."

"Dang. There go my plans of mixing tequila into my coffee," Laila muttered sarcastically.

"It's not like you _need_ coffee, Laila. You have enough energy," I remarked. She stuck her tongue out at me, and filled her goblet with chocolate espresso anyways. I filled my goblet with a vanilla milkshake. We all filled our plates with the delicious looking food. As Laila was about to take a huge bite of her food, we noticed everyone getting up and heading towards the fire in the center of the pavillion with their food. We got up and followed everyone else.

As we got closer to the fire, I noticed that everyone was dropping parts of their food into the fire.

"What a waste of perfectly good food," Laila whispered to me, frowning. A person right in front of us turned and frowned.

"It's an offering to the gods. They like the smell."

"The smell? Of burnt food?" I questioned. His eyebrows rose. I guess I could believe that after everything that seemed impossible that had happened to me. It was then that I really noticed how attractive he was. He had an eye patch, which was the most noticeable thing about him. To me it meant that he was mysterious. His eye that was watching me attentively was a deep brown, almost black. He had black hair that was pulled into a short ponytail.

Laila bumped me, bringing me back to the present. "What?" I hissed, turning back to her. The boy put some pieces of his orange n the fire, whispering something that was unintelligible. I took a step forward, shoveling half of my apple into the fire. "I'm not entirely sure what I'm supposed to say, but thanks for getting Laila and me here safely," I whispered quickly and headed back to our table.

"You thought that boy was cute, didn't you!" Laila whisper-shouted as we reached the table. I elbowed her, noticing that he was staring right at me. "Oh my gods, he is looking right at you!"

"Laila! Stop! That goth boy you think is hot is staring at you too," I said. She elbowed me, but I figured that I earned it.

"Yeah, well... You snore in your sleep!" she yelled. Everyone stopped talking and stared at us. Laila shrinked back. "Sorry."

"It's okay, now everyone is really staring at us." We giggled, and slowly everyone went back to their conversations.

"Want to look around camp after breakfast?" Laila asked. I nodded, taking a bite of the extremely good oatmeal.

After breakfast, which Laila explained was called "breakfast" because it _breaks _the _fast _that you have over the night of not eating, Chiron stomped again to get everyone's attention.

A short, chubby man in a leopard spotted Hawaiian T-shirt and purple running shoes stood up tiredly. He had big blue bloodshot eyes, a red nose, and black-almost-purple-hair.

"Uhm, I guess I'd 'ought to greet you little snot-nosed brats. Ahem, Greetings. Chiron says that Capture the flag is tomorrow, and Cabin Eleven currently holds the laurels. I couldn't possibly care less, but congratulations. And as some of you know, probably because of the most recent outburst, we have two new campers, Gretel Summers and Lindsey Khan." Chiron mumbled something to him. "Oh, um... Grace Winters and La—Laila Kapoor. As of now, you may start your daily activities, run along."

Chiron approached us after everyone had left. "You two have the rest of the day free to do whatever you wish. Your normal activities will start tomorrow."

Afterwards, we left to start our self-guided tour. We had just passed the arena when we saw Luke coaching other kids on how to fight. With swords. Shiny. We walked into the arena. After a moment, Luke looked up, noticed us, grinned, and walked over to us.

"I have something important to tell you guys," he said once he'd gotten close enough for us to hear him.

**AN: So, how was it? Please let us know. If you liked it, tell us why. If you didn't like it, tell us why. **


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: Sorry for the cliffhanger in the last chapter. And also, sorry for the wait, but at least it wasn't about a month and a half between updates like last time. :D Anyways, enjoy!**

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_After a moment, Luke looked up, noticed us, grinned, and walked over to us._

_"I have something important to tell you guys," he said once he'd gotten close enough for us to hear him._

"You see that girl over there?" he asked us, pointing towards a blonde girl taking to a brown haired boy.

"The blonde?"

"Yeah. She's Annabeth, daughter of Athena."

"As in, goddess of wisdom and battle strategy?" Laila asked excitedly.

"Laila, stop being creepy, what about her?"

"Hey!" she exclaimed.

"She's pretty smart, and pretty, and I betrayed her and everyone else here at the Camp," he rushed through his sentence.

"What? How?" Laila and I exclaimed in unison.

"I'll start at the beginning." Luke went on to explain how Kronos had tricked him and some other members of the camp into working for him, saying that the gods don't care about him.

It all began when he met Hermes when he was younger; Hermes refused to reveal his fate, which angered Luke, and he believed that Hermes didn't love him. After that, Luke started getting into trouble more often, trying to prove himself to his father, sometimes on purpose, and wasn't always careful when he, Thalia, Annabeth, and Grover were getting to camp. Thalia, he told us, was a daughter of Zeus, and Grover was a satyr. Laila, excitable as always, was thrilled to hear that satyrs existed as well. When the four of them arrived at camp, they were being chased by monsters sent by Hades, and Thalia sacrificed herself to let the others get into the camp. As Thalia lay dying, Zeus took pity on her and turned her into a pine tree that protected the camp.

When he was seventeen, Luke was sent on a quest by his father to get a Golden Apple from Hera's garden. He was excited, but also dubious, as this had already been done by Hercules. He left to complete the quest, but failed when he was scarred by the dragon protecting the garden. When he got back to camp, he was pitied by all of the other campers. This triggered a resentment for Olympus and the gods and wanted to destroy them and everything they stood for.

Kronos started coming to him in his dreams then, and he Luke decided to join his army to get revenge on the gods. He was assigned to steal Zeus's master bolt as well as Hades' Helm of Darkness to start a war between the Gods. He almost succeeded, but was caught by Ares later. Being the God of War, Ares was awed by the fact that he wanted to create such a huge war, but he took the bolt and helm back.

As punishment, Kronos started punishing him with nightmares, but later informed him that there would be another half-blood coming to camp, and he would accidentally take the bolt and helm down to Tartarus, ensuring a war between the gods. Knowing this, Luke gained the trust of Percy, a son of Poseidon, and then gave him a cursed pair of winged shoes to "help" on his quest. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your perspective, Percy gave the shoes to Grover, and they malfunctioned. At his return to the camp, Luke took Percy out into the woods to try and kill him with a pit scorpion to stop him from interfering again, while gloating and partially revealing his plan like every TV villain does. Percy managed to kill the scorpion though, and the wood nymphs brought him back to the camp to be healed. Percy revealed the fact that Luke was evil to the rest of the camp, and it came as a huge shock to many members, especially Annabeth.

Skipping a few years into the future, Luke had been almost completely controlled by Kronos. He had learned that when Kronos got all of his power back, he would become immortal again, and, in the process, would kill all mortal life around him.

Luke/Kronos completely destroyed the city of Mount Olympus, along with another boy, Ethan, as they approached the throne room, where all of the gods were, with Percy, Annabeth, Thalia, and Grover hot on their trails. They battled briefly in the throne room, but then Annabeth was able to partially reawaken Luke. The real Luke, not the possessed one. Ethan then tried to help by stabbing Luke, but it was in vain, as Luke had bathed in the Styx river, making him invulnerable, and his sword shatters. Some parts of the sword bounced back and stabbed him, and at the same time, Kronos opened a crack in the ground under him, sending him plummeting to his death. Annabeth again tried to reawaken Luke, and succeeded. Annabeth gave Percy her knife, which he handed to Luke, and he stabbed himself in his Achilles heel—under his left arm—to stop Kronos.

As he lay dying, Luke asked Percy to not let this happen again, and not to let kids in the future remain unclaimed, like Ethan and children of minor gods and goddesses. He died as the gods arrived, and was taken away by the Fates, and blessed by Hermes, just as he had always wanted.

"So then how are you alive now?" I asked.

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**AN: Sorry about this cliffhanger as well. But, if it's any consolation, we promise to get the next chapter out soon! I know it is short, but we felt like this would be a good spot to stop and keep you guys in suspense. ****Please let us know what you thought of this chapter. If you liked it, leave a review and tell us why. If you didn't, leave us a review and tell us why. We really appreciate your feedback!**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait. I hope this lives up to your expectations.**

**Disclaimer: Any recognizable characters or plots belong to their respective owners. All original characters and plots belong to me.**

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"_So then how are you alive now?" I asked._

"Um... Well... You see..."

"Spit it out!" Laila exclaimed impatiently.

"Uh... I..."

_WHACK!_

"Laila!"

"What? He wasn't answering the question! What other choice did I have but to smack him?"

"You could have been patient," I commented.

"No, I couldn't! I have ADHD! Patience does not come easily for me."

"Shut up!" Luke finally got out.

"Now he speaks," Laila murmured under her breath.

"Do you remember the guy who messed up your names during breakfast?" he said, ignoring Laila. We nodded. "That's Mr. D."

"What does D stand for?" I questioned.

"Dionysus." Laila sucked in a breath and I could tell that she was about to start fangirling. Again.

"Laila, shut up."

"I didn't say anything!"

"You were about to. I could sense it."

"Anyway," Luke said, interrupting our banter. "Mr. D and Hades had a bet a while ago. They were playing pinochle. Again. For once, Mr. D won, and, in a rare show of kindness for the camp, he asked for all of the half-bloods who died in the war back."

"And why are you telling _us_this?" Laila asked.

"It was part of the deal. All of the half-bloods that were brought back have to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And since I was the biggest traitor, I have to tell all the new campers the story. Well, it's time for you guys to get your weapons."

"Weapons?" Laila exclaimed excitedly.

"Don't get too excited Laila," I said. "You don't _want_to hurt or kill anyone, do you?"

"Um... There's Suzzane Roshan, and Gauri Khan, and Avantika Ma—Khan, and Kristen Stewart, and James Patterson..." She trailed off, undoubtedly thinking of other people she wanted to kill in her head as she walked off in the direction of the armory.

As we followed behind her, I whispered to Luke, "I'm not so sure I trust her with weapons..." We both chuckled when Laila turned around and glared at us.

"Are you guys coming or not?"'

"Yeah, yeah," I said as we started following her.

As we walked into the armory, I noticed that guy that Laila seemed to have a crush on. When I looked back at her, it looked like she hadn't noticed yet.

"Hey, Laila," I whispered from behind her.

"Hay is for horses, Grace," she muttered.

"Fine. Laila, look! It's that emo guy you like!"

"Just because he likes to wear black does not mean he's emo."

"Sure, sure. Whatever helps you sleep at night, Laila."

"It doesn't!"

"Okay, girls. Time to choose your weapons," Luke said to put an end to our banter. "If anything catches your eye specifically, you can bring it over and I will see if it's usable by you, which it most likely will be."

I looked around to see if anything in particular would catch my eye, like Luke said it would. I could see every type of weapon imaginable, and more. I hadn't known that a sock could be used as a weapon, but apparently it could. There were daggers, knives, shields, spears, guns, bows and arrows, darts (most likely poisoned), swords, lances, axes, sickles, clubs, staffs, and I was pretty sure if I looked in the right place, I would find an atom bomb.

Laila was scurrying around from one weapon to the next, admiring and probably plotting how to use each weapon to kill whoever she wanted to kill.

"So many weapons! Not enough Laila!" She was hyperventilating as the spun around frantically to look at all the weapons, and looked a bit like a dog chasing its tail.

"Relax Laila, just take a deep breath, and think calming thoughts," I tried to say to her, but to be entirely honest, I was afraid of being with her in this room. Not to mention Emo Boy was staring straight at her like she had lost her mind.

Slowly, he approached her, as if he was afraid that she would attack him if he made one wrong move. I wouldn't have put it past her if she didn't have such a huge crush on him. As he walked over, he picked up a leather quiver, a bow, and some arrows.

"I heard Aria grumbling the other day about how she lost to you in an archery contest," he said to her. "How about a bow and arrow?" he suggested. Laila just stared at him wide-eyed like he was the answer to life, the universe, and everything, so I jabbed her hard in the ribs.

"Um... Yeah, sure... Um. Yeah, bows and arrows," she said, avoiding looking at his eyes. Or face. Or him, in general. "Um... Thanks, for, uh, recommending it to me, um, what was your name?"

"Nico."

"Yeah, thanks Nico," she repeated, still not looking at him.

"Well, I still need to find a weapon," I said to get the attention off of Laila. "Do you have any recommendations, Nico?"

"How about a dagger? You look like a dagger kind of girl." He handed me a few different daggers, but none of them felt quite right. It was then that I noticed that my ring was glowing slightly. I asked Laila if she saw it, but she didn't. I took the ring off to try to figure out what was going on, and then suddenly there was a flash, and in my hand was a dagger. Unlike the other ones that Nico had handed, this one felt perfect, as if it was made for me.

"That's quite a ring you got there, Grace," Luke said. I had almost forgotten that he was there. "It's like magic! But how does it turn back into a ring?"

"I don't know, but I'm guessing it's that button right there," I said, pointing to the Azurite stone. I pushed it, and it magically transformed back into my ring, and I put it back on.

"How did you not know it did that before?" Laila asked.

"I've never taken it off before. It's one of the last signs of my mother, so I keep it on so it won't get lost." I sighed, looking at my bracelet, another gift from my mother. I wondered if _it _did anything. "What if my bracelet does something too?"

"Is it another gift from your mother?"

"Yeah," I said, as I rubbed the rainbow moonstone. Suddenly, a slightly purple force field appeared around me.

"Wow! Forget the dagger, how did you not know that happened?!" Laila said, walking over and poking the purple shield. "Ow!" she exclaimed. "It's electric!"

"Are you alright?" Nico asked Laila, walking over to her. I put the shield down by touching the moonstone again.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said. "It just stings a bit."

"Okay, I think we probably need to get out of the weapon shed now, come on." Luke said, leading everyone out.

"Aw! Why?! I like that room!" Laila whined.

"It's about lunch time Laila," I said to cajole her into leaving with the rest of us.

"Lunch?!" she yelled excitedly. "What are we having?"

"I thought we'd have a picnic in the woods. And we'll be having the normal picnicy-type food: sandwiches, lemonade, fruits, deviled eggs."

"Yes! Picnics are so much fun!" Laila exclaimed. "Let's go, I'm really hungry!" Her stomach grumbled loudly as she finished the sentence, emphasizing her point.

"I'll join you guys," Nico said. Luke looked surprised.

"Are you sure? I mean, you don't have to—"

"I'm coming. Do you have a problem with that?" He spoke through gritted teeth, glaring at Luke.

"Of course not," he answered sounding faintly scared. "Let's go!"

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**A/N: So how did you like it? If you hated it, tell us why. If you like it, tell us why. We love hearing from you!**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: To make up for having chapters posted late(ish, we didn't really set a schedule...) here's a new chapter way earlier than any of you expected. Enjoy!**

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"Have you been claimed yet?" Nico asked us as we were setting up our picnic.

"Claimed?" I asked.

"Yeah, your godly parent is supposed to claim you by showing you some sign by your thirteenth birthday."

"Well, the day before my thirteenth birthday, my aunt kicked me out because she said I had wings or something. I'm not sure if that means much, since she was always hallucinating about monsters," Laila muttered. "Does that mean anything?"

"I'm not sure, but we could ask Chiron," Luke said. "How about you, Grace? Has anything weird happened to you?"

"On my thirteenth birthday my father took me around town, where we found this old cathedral with three scary angel statues. I blinked once and they were surrounding me! Then I blinked again and they stayed in the exact same spot!"

"That's a bit... creepy," Laila commented. "Angel statues?"

"Yeah." Laila's stomach grumbled again.

"Enough talking about this stuff, let's eat!" Luke suggested, pulling out a picnic basket.

We split the food into four equal portions, and Laila scarfed down her food faster either of the guys.

"How does she do that?" Luke asked.

"Just keep chewing," Laila replied with her mouth full.

"Don't talk with your mouth full," I reprimanded her. She stuck out her tongue with food still on it. "Laila, that's gross."

"So your shield was pretty cool," Luke commented. "I've never seen anything like that before. The dagger was a bit like Riptide, don't you think, Nico?"

"Yep," was his short reply. I got the feeling that Nico didn't like Luke that much. It must have been the betrayal and lingering mistrust over it. I wondered why he had come to our picnic with us, but my train of thought was interrupted by Laila asking me if I could turn on the force field again.

"Why? So you can injure yourself again?" I smirked at her.

"No, I want to see what will happen if I shoot it with an arrow," Laila said. "I'm also curious to see what would happen if someone were to stand right next to you while it was on. It had about a 3 foot radius when it was... enabled before. Would it protect the other person or force them out?"

"Let's find out," Luke said. "I'll stand next Grace, and Laila, you fire an arrow at the force field after it's activated."

He came over and stood next to me while I rubbed the moonstone on my wrist to activate the force field. As soon as it was activated, Luke flew across the forest and slammed into a tree. Nico covered his mouth with his hand to hide his amusement, but Laila didn't even try. She burst into laughter, and then fell over with the force of her laughter, which only made her laugh harder as did the look on Luke's face as he got up and brushed himself off. After about 5 minutes, her need to breathe won out over her laughter and she started to calm down.

"Okay," she said breathlessly. "I'm gonna shoot it now."

"Please try to aim it away from my head, just in case," I said.

"I'll try," she answered and picked up her bow and arrow from where she dropped it when she had her laughing attack. She shot the arrow, aiming about two inches to the left of my ear, but when it hit my force field, the arrow turned into ash after a huge spark lit up the forest.

"It looks like it's foolproof, but what would happen if someone went at it with a sword?" Nico asked from where he was standing. Suddenly, the force field started to flicker, and then it was gone.

"I guess even this has a fault," Laila said. "That was about 10 minutes. Maybe it just doesn't work after that about of time, like how a computer goes to sleep after a certain amount of time. Will it work now, or does it need time to 'refuel?'"

I tapped my bracelet again, but the force field didn't start up.

"Maybe it needs another 10 minutes," I suggested.

"Well, while we're waiting, I just want to ask," she paused, "are you going to going to finish your sandwich, Grace?"

"You can have the rest of it."

"Great, thanks!" she said and snatched it off my plate. After watching Laila scarf down all the remaining food, I tried the force field again, and this time it worked.

"Do your thing, Nico," I said. He grabbed a sword, then changed his mind and grabbed another one, then walked over and stabbed the force field. There was a huge spark, and then was thrown across the forest, but not as far as Luke was.

Laila was laughing again. She was really too amused by others' pain.

"Sorry, Nico!" I called, giggling a little under my breath.

He huffed as he stood up. "Well, it's about 2 o'clock. We should better head back before someone thinks we're lost in the woods and will never come back."

"I bet Aria would like that," Laila smirked.

"Can we talk to Chiron about the claiming thing we spoke about earlier?" I asked, as soon as Laila was done laughing quietly at her private jab at Aria.

"That sounds like a good idea. Nico, you should go talk to the counselors of some of the minor cabins, to see if they have any idea about who their parents might be," Luke suggested. Everyone agreed this was a good idea, and we went our separate ways, even though Laila seemed quite disappointed to leave Nico behind.

As we walked back to the camp, I noticed that some of the trees seemed to almost move.

"Why are the trees moving?" I asked.

"Oh, they're dryads. I'm sure that Laila will be able to explain it to you, seeing as she knows a lot about everything else," he chuckled.

"Well, a dryad is a spirit that lives in or near a tree to protect it, and their lives are connected with the trees and—"

"Okay, I get it, Laila. You don't need to go overboard."

We chatted some more until we reached the Big House. Chiron was standing on the front porch with Mr. D playing some card game.

"Ah, Grace, Laila. I was expecting you to get here sooner or later. I expect Luke told you two about the claiming process?"

"More or less," I responded.

"Can you think of anything special that happened on or before your thirteenth birthday?"

"We discussed this a little bit with Luke and Nico," Laila said. "On my thirteenth birthday, my aunt kicked me out because she was hallucinating and thought that I had wings. She looked pretty freaked out, but I'm not sure if it's anything special since she was always hallucinating about something. If it wasn't monsters, then it was angels."

"And I had some freaky Angel statues scare the living Hades out of me once I blinked, one my thirteenth birthday."

"Why didn't you mention this sooner? I think I know who your parents are!" Chiron exclaimed.

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**A/N: How did you like it? If you liked it, tell us why in a review. If you hated it, and think it should be at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, tell us that and why. Maybe we'll be better next time. If you want some sort of updates from Laila and Grace, join "Grace and Laila's Nook of Awesomeness" on Facebook.**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Here's chapter 8! As a special treat, this one's in Nico point of view instead of Grace's.**

**Also, I always forget to add this.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Percy Jackson series or the Heroes of Olympus series. Any recognizable characters or plots are the property of their respective owners. All original characters and plots belong to me.**

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"_That sounds like a good idea. Nico, you should go talk to the counselors of some of the minor cabins, to see if they have any idea about who their parents might be," Luke suggested. Everyone agreed this was a good idea, and we went our separate ways, even though Laila seemed quite disappointed to leave Nico behind._

Nico POV

Laila had a weird look on her face as I walked away from them. Oh no. That can't be good.

I had a feeling about Laila's parent. The way that she won the archery competition against Aria, one of the best archers we have at camp, made me think that her parent was either Tyche, goddess of fortune and luck, or Nike, goddess of victory.

Grace's parent, on the other hand, I wasn't so sure about. I ruled out the obvious ones quickly: Zeus (I didn't recall seeing much lightening), Hera (she doesn't run around having affairs, that's Zeus' job), Poseidon (no big tidal waves), Ares (she didn't seem the violent type), Artemis (obviously), Hephaestus (she wasn't...ugly), Aphrodite (she wasn't self-absorbed like all the rest of them seem to be), Hermes (she didn't seem like one to play pranks), Hades (I didn't see any dead), Hypnos (she wasn't asleep all the time), and Hebe (she didn't seem the serving type). That just left Demeter, Athena, Apollo, Dionysus, Iris, Nemesis, Nike, Tyche, and Hecate.

I decided to go to find Miranda first. She would be the best person to ask.

"Hey, Miranda!" I yelled as I saw her over by the strawberry fields with the Dionysus kids. Great, I could kill two birds with one stone, talk to Miranda about Demeter and Pollux about Dionysus.

"Yeah, Nico," she asked a bit fearfully. It wasn't my fault that everyone in the camp was afraid of the only child of Hades.

"I wanted to try to figure out what cabin of the new campers belongs to. Grace said that on her thirteenth birthday, she was surrounded by creepy angel statues. Have you or Pollux ever heard of anything like that happening?"

"No, I haven't. I'll go ask Pollux." She walked off to talk to Pollux while I just stood there awkwardly. The longer I stood there, the more plants around me died. The god of the dead obviously doesn't have a good impression on anything living. Finally, Miranda came back, just in time, too. There was a circle of dead plants around me that stretched out a good 2 feet in every direction. Miranda looked and the ground beneath me, made a face, then said, "Pollux hasn't heard of anything. Sorry we couldn't be more of a help to you." I could sense that she didn't really want me around, and I wasn't that keen on staying either, so I thanked her and ran off. As I looked back, I saw Miranda kneeling, trying to bring the plants back to life.

Next stop, the lake, where Annabeth and Percy would most likely be. I just hoped I wouldn't walk in on anything too bad. It was quite a bit of a walk from the fields to the lake. I passed by Laila, Grace and Luke again, Laila waved at me a little, sending butterflies into my stomach. Wait, I'm the son of Hades, do I even get butterflies? Let's try something a little more masculine, a bat, maybe. Focus, Nico, I told myself. I had to go find Annabeth.

As I approached the lake, I heard the distinctive sounds of kissing that I recognized from walking in on Percy and Annabeth once before. It was awkward, to say the least. I made sure I was still a couple feet away from them before I cleared my throat loudly to let them know I was here. By the time I had reached them, they were more or less decent, but the evidence of their... activities... were still present; mussed up hair, swollen lips, misbuttoned buttons, and, of course, the blush on both their faces.

"Uh, hi, Nico. Did you need anything?" Percy asked in an oddly high-pitched tone. He cleared his throat.

"Yeah," I said, suppressing a smirk. "I actually wanted to know if you could help me identify the parents of the new campers, Grace and Laila, Annabeth."

She cleared her throat. "Have they said anything about their claiming?"

"Well, Grace said that she was surrounded by, and I quote, 'creepy angel statues' on her thirteenth birthday. I've narrowed Laila's parent down to either Tyche or Nike, because she won that archery competition against Aria. Also, she said that the day before her thirteenth, her aunt kicked her out because she thought that Laila had wings, or something. But apparently, her aunt has always been hallucinating, seeing monsters and stuff. I'm inclined to think that she can see through the Mist, though, and Laila just didn't see them."

Annabeth leaned over to Percy and stage whispered, "I think that's the longest thing I've ever heard him say." They both laughed.

"Shut up," I said, slightly embarrassed.

"I don't think that Grace's parent is Athena. Creepy statues aren't really her thing. I would lean towards Hecate because aren't statues a Hecate thing? And as for Laila, I think that her parent is probably Nike, because of the whole wings thing."

"Okay, I'm gonna go talk to Lou and Victoria." I walked off without another word.

I knew that both Lou and VIctoria would most likely be overlooking the construction of both their cabins. They were almost finished, and just needed a few minor parts finished up.

"Lou, Victoria," I called when I was close enough for them to hear me. I automatically cringed while saying Lou's name. She had a weird obsession with me. I didn't like it.

"Hey, Nico," Lou said in a tone that I thought she meant to sound flirty, but instead sounded like a cat sharpening her nails on a blackboard. I shuddered inwardly. "Did you need something? You know I would do anything for you. Anything," she said, rubbing up on me as if she were a cat and I was her favorite couch. Victoria rolled her eyes.

Talking mostly to Victoria, because, frankly, Lou creeped me out, I said, "Yeah, you know the two campers, Grace and Laila? I wanted to know if I could figure out who their parents were. Annabeth told me that Grace's parent was most likely Hecate, and that Laila's parent was most likely Nike." I was worried for Grace. She would have to put up with Lou. Every. Day. " Grace said that on her thirteenth birthday, she was surrounded by creepy angel statues. Does that sound like a Hecate claiming," I asked Lou. She was too dazed to hear what I was saying. "Maybe I should come back later," I said, backing away slowly."

"Oh, no, Nico! Don't go! Um, yeah, I guess it sounds a bit like Hecate. I mean, statues are one of her symbols," she giggled.

"Okay, and Victoria, does giving a child wings sound like something Nike would do to claim them?"

"Yeah. Nike was most famous for her wings. Even after the statues of the other gods stopped having wings, Nike's statues still did."

"Thanks for all your help, Victoria. And Lou," I said, all but running away from her and towards the Big House, where I knew Luke, Grace, and Laila would be.

I didn't really trust Luke with the two of them, especially now since I knew that they were children of minor gods. Many of the kids in Kronos' army were children of minor gods who resented the Olympians for not actually having much importance even though they were children of the gods. I was worried that Luke would try to convince the two of them into resenting the gods, like he had before. I knew that my fear was unfounded because the one condition that my father had when bringing the kids back is that they would always be loyal to the gods and tell the whole truth, but still. I didn't and never would trust that guy, especially after what he had done before.

Before I knew it, I was in front of the Big House again.

"Laila, Grace, I think I know who your parents are," I yelled, just as Chiron said the same thing.

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**A/N: So, how did you like it? Good, bad? Tell us your reasons in a review. Also, for updates on how Grace and Laila are doing, like "Grace and Laila's Nook of Awesomeness" on Facebook. See you later, and don't forget to be awesome.**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Sorry for the longer wait than usual. School's been busy, and we haven't had much time to write. Anyway, enjoy this chapter!**

**Disclaimer: Any recognizable characters, plots, ideas, and quotes belong to their respective owners. Any original characters, plots, ideas, and quotes belong to me. **

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"_Laila, Grace, I think I know who your parents are," I yelled, just as Chiron said the same thing._

Grace POV

Wow. That was weird. They both said the same thing at the same time. Creepy.

"Nico, what a surprise! I didn't know that you were helping these two out," Chiron said.

"Yeah, I know. Who did you think their parents were?"

"I am pretty sure that Laila's mother is Nike and Grace's mother is Hecate. What did you think?"

"I asked Annabeth what she thought, and she said the same. I went to go check with Lou and Victoria, though, afterwards. They both said that it seemed pretty likely that Grace's mom is Hecate and Laila's mom is Nike."

"And cue the fangirling," I muttered under my breath so only Luke, who was standing right next to me could hear. He chuckled, and, as I expected, Laila got extremely excited.

"Nike? As in goddess of victory?! Nike is my mom? How cool is that?! And Grace! Your mom is Hecate! She's the goddess of magic! That explains so much! Like the forcefield! And the scary statues!" She squealed loudly, and Nico brought his hands up to cover his ears.

"Is she always like this?" he asked me.

"Pretty much," both Luke and I said at the same time.

"But wouldn't that mean that we're all related?" she said looking right at Nico, I elbowed her to make sure she wouldn't completely space out staring at him.

"Technically, yes, but we feel like we're not because we're all so different and the godly part doesn't really count since gods don't exactly have DNA like humans and us demigods do," he said.

"Okay, good," she said quietly, which was a feat for Laila.

"We'll take you two to your respective cabins now," Chiron said, as proper as ever.

Laila couldn't stop talking on our way over. She kept wondering was it would look like and how the other people in our cabins would be like. Nico slightly cringed when she mentioned that. I wondered why.

Finally, we arrived at my cabin. As if by magic, a girl appeared outside.

"Nico!" When she saw him deep in conversation with Laila, she narrowed her eyes. Great. So my half sister was one of those girls. She flitted over to Nico's side and grabbed his arm. "Hello, sweetie," she said pointedly. A crestfallen expression appeared on Laila's face.

Nico gingerly pried her hand off his arm and slowly replied, "Hello Lou. And how many times do I have to tell you that I am not your 'sweetie?'" he rhetorically asked.

"Until you finally give in, honey," she replied, giggling.

Nico cleared his throat awkwardly. "This is your half sister, Grace," he said pointing to me. She looked me over once. I could automatically tell that she didn't like me.

"So nice to meet you," she said to me in her annoying nasal voice. "Who is this?"

"I'm Laila." Laila's eyes were narrowed like those of a jungle cat ready to attack Lou. I'm sure no one but Nico would have been surprised if a cat fight did start.

"That's nice, dear," she said flippantly. She turned her attention back to Nico. "So, honey bunches—"

"I really need to go! Um... I have to.. uh... clean my room before tomorrow's inspection! Bye, " he said hurriedly before running off as fast as he could. I honestly was not surprised. I would have done the same.

Lou looked back at us.

"If you ever, and I mean ever try to get close to my Nico, I will skin you and turn you into a pair of shoes," she said looking at Laila. "And as for you, Grace," she spat, distastefully, but was interrupted by another girl walking up.

"Lou, stop harassing the new campers," she said. Lou huffed and stormed off. "I'm Victoria," she said, sticking out her hand. "You must be Grace and Laila."

"Victoria is your half sister, Laila," Luke said.

"Really? I've never had a sibling or anyone like a sibling before," she chirped. "This is going to be so much fun!"

It was at this time the boy that had seemed mad at us at breakfast was walking by, Victoria took off at a speed that was comparable to Nico's to catch up to him, shouting "Ethan! Ethan! Wait up!"

He took one look back to see who was calling him, then his eyes went comically wide, and he ran away even faster.

I shook my head. "Crazy half sisters," I muttered.

"No offense, but I really don't like your sister," Laila said.

"None taken. I don't like her all that much either." Lou had gone off to look for Nico, and I was glad to be spared from being in her presence. "Do you want to go see the lake that we saw earlier?"

"Well, we could do that or go to the arena," she offered, her eyes wide. "I want to see the fighting!"

"Of course you do, Laila. We could practice too!" I was excited to try out my new dagger. "Lets get going. Race you?"

"Like you'll be able to beat me, Casperina," she laughed and ran off.

Casperina? I thought. Where does she get these ideas? I shook my head and ran off after her.

She won; I made a mental note to never race her again. Or to bet against her in general.

We walked into the Arena not really knowing what to expect, but I was positive that Laila almost fainted when she saw Nico engaged in battle with someone. I couldn't tell who he was fighting, but I could tell that he was mildly attractive.

"Laila, that's Nico." I pointed out, she elbowed me.

"I can see that. Should I go talk to him?" she asked. "After their fight is over, that is."

"I think you should. Unless you're too chicken," I baited her as if we were in elementary school.

At that point the sword from the other guy flew towards us and landed right at our feet.

"Nice one, di Angelo, probably scared these poor girls out of their minds." When I actually saw the face of who was speaking, I got a little weak in the knees. It was the boy I had spoken to at breakfast, Ethan, going by what Victoria had said. Except now he was about 10 times hotter because of the hot weather and the way his muscles were flexed and the sweat made his t-shirt cling to his skin.

"Sorry girls, I'm sure Nico had no intention of nearly severing any limbs," he said. Nico probably had that irritated expression on his face, but I wouldn't know. I couldn't take my eyes off of Ethan.

"I'm sure you didn't, but Grace and I were hoping for some lessons on how to use our weapons, if that's alright with you, Nico," she said then elbowed me, noticing that my eyes were locked on Ethan.

"Yeah, yup. What she said." Nico rolled his eyes.

"Ethan, maybe you could help Grace and I'll help Laila," he offered.

"Sounds like a good idea, di Angelo. I don't think you'd be able to handle the both of them anyways, so I'll take this pretty thing off your hands," he said, then winked at me. I felt the blood rush up to my face as I made some sort of squeaking noise. Ethan chuckled. "Let's get started."

I looked back at Laila and made the SOS face. I didn't think I'd be able to survive an entire training session with Ethan without either making a fool out of myself or hurting myself. Laila, in turn, made the just-be-confident face and then turned her attention to Nico. I guess I was on my own this time.

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**A/N: So, how was it? If you hated it, let us know why. If you loved it, let us know why as well. We love hearing your thoughts, though they've been getting less frequent. Hint, hint. **


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: So, quick update for once. It's an apology for not updating the last chapter as quickly as you guys would have wished. **

**Disclaimer: Any recognizable characters, plots, ideas and quotes belong to their respective owners. Any original characters, plots, ideas and quotes belong to me.**

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"First things first, where is your weapon?"

"Right here," I said, taking off my ring.

"No offense, but I don't think a ring is going to help you fight off monsters," he smirked. His expression suddenly changed when he saw the flash of light and the transformation of my ring into a dagger. I noticed that the surprised expression changed back into a smirk.

"Dagger on sword combat is difficult; you have control while I have reach, so it's best if you come in close." His blade glimmered in the sun as he motioned for me to attack him. I tried not to look straight at him, knowing that it would totally ruin my concentration. I did get in pretty close, and I tried a maneuver that I had seen in here earlier. He slashed back at me. I blocked it and grinned at him, and he grinned right back, which was when I faltered slightly and my dagger clanged out of my hands, and he had pinned one arm behind my back.

"Good try, but next time, try to not get distracted," he smirked. "Let's try again."

I sneaked a peek to see what Laila and Nico were doing. I half expected Laila to have somehow talked Nico into helping her practice like they did in those cheesy movies where the guy gets right behind the girl and teaches her how to play pool, but to my surprise, it looked like they were having another contest. I shook my head. Nico, of all people, should know better than to compete against Laila.

I turned my attention back to Ethan. This time we went a little into hand to hand combat. Once again, I lost. I wasn't very good at the fighting thing.

"You have to focus a little more on the target, Grace. You have to know what you want before you can get it." He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Get over yourself, Ethan. One more time, and this time I'll win." I said. He got into a fighting position. I attacked him, and it was like someone had turned on a switch somewhere. I'd successfully disarmed him and continued to fight him hand to hand. Somehow, I grabbed both his arms and pinned them behind his back.

I looked up to give him a smug grin, but my breath stopped in my throat when I realized that our faces were mere inches away from each other. We stood there, just staring at each other until Nico interrupted.

"Are you guys just going to stare at each other all day?" he asked, jokingly. "Good job, by the way, Grace. Not many people can beat a seasoned veteran on their first day."

"For your information, di Angelo, I let her win."

"You did not!" I gasped.

"Yes I did," he responded coolly.

"Well, in that case, let's have a contest. Me and Laila against you and Nico."

"Great idea. Winner gets to order around the loser for the next hour."

"Ethan, I don't think you—"

"Oh, shut up, di Angelo."

"But, Ethan!" I mentally willed Nico to shut up. We would never compete if Ethan found out that Laila was a daughter of Nike.

"Are we gonna do this or not?" Laila asked impatiently. "I'm ready to kick some butt!"

"We'll see how much butt kicking you do. I don't think you've ever competed against a real man," Ethan said with a pointed look at Nico. That was not good. For him. I knew how mad Laila would get with that insinuation.

"Oh, really? We'll see."

"We will see," Ethan replied overconfidently.

"We'll attack." I said as Ethan grabbed his sword from where it had dropped earlier when we were fighting. "You take Nico, I'll take Ethan?" I said under my breath to Laila.

"Of course. I wouldn't let you near my man," she giggled softly.

"Let's do this thing," I said at a normal volume.

Nico had his sword aside, because Laila didn't have a weapon. Obviously, the guys had the same plan as we did; Laila against Nico and me against Ethan.

I wasn't sure how Laila and Nico were doing but I managed to stay focused. Of course, I lost my dagger first, I almost kicked him in the face but he was a little too tall. He kicked me in the side, which lead to me to fall straight down, I kicked out my legs and made him fall too. Except my calculations were a little off and he landed right on top of me.

"If you were so eager, you could've just asked," he smirked.

"Shut up." I could feel the blush creeping up my cheeks.

Why would he even say something like that?

"Because I'm a guy," he said.

Did I say that out loud?

"Yep," he said, laughing. My face reddened further.

"Let's get back to the fight, shall we?"

"Why? I quite liked this."

"Because I'm looking forward to bossing you around for an hour."

"Not likely." At that time, he pinned my arms above my head and draped his leg against mine so I couldn't move them. "Give up yet?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Considering that I can't even move, I'm going to say yes." He smirked at me again, and if I could have moved my arms, I would had slapped him.

"Hey Ethan, would you do me the pleasure of getting off of my best friend?" Laila asked. We both looked over at her and I immediately felt bad for Nico, both of his arms were pinned behind his back in what appeared to be a pretty painful way.

"Nope, I think I'm comfortable right here."

"Ethan, if I could slap you..." I trailed off, relishing the idea in my head.

"Fine," he said, slowly getting up. Once he stood up, he held his hand out to me to help me up. I ignored it and got up myself. "Don't be mean just because I get to boss you around for an hour."

"Does this mean that I get to boss Nico around for an hour?" Laila asked excitedly.

"Yeah, Laila clearly won against Nico."

"Hey!" Nico protested, I noticed that Laila was still holding his arm.

"Sorry, di Angelo, but she smashed you."

"Like a bug," Laila commented. She and Ethan laughed and high-fived.

"Fine. Let's try to be strong for the next hour," Nico said, looking at me. I nearly growled when Ethan slung his arm over my shoulder.

"Well, what could we possibly get done in a hour?" he mused.

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**A/N: So, please leave us a review and let us know that there are actually still people who read this story. We're getting a bit worried... Also, if you want random updates from Grace and Laila on stuff like when we're writing, like "Grace and Laila's Nook of Awesomeness" of Facebook. See you soon, hopefully!**


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